Sugar Daddy websites that offer a “mutually beneficial relationship” are being investigated as part of human trafficking when they involve minors and young women. A recent case, has a San Diego attorney pleading guilty which will probably lead to prison time and potential loss of bar license.
I hope this case causes people to think twice about the nature of these websites and how vulnerable young women can be lured to them. Professionals especially should be very careful since they are held to a higher level of conduct. This case did not involve an agent posing as a young woman but an actual minor female who claimed to be 18 year's old but was still in high school.
On
October 30, 2019, San Diego attorney William David Turley plead guilty in
federal court to enticing and coercing a female to engage in prostitution in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a). U.S.D.C., So Dist, CA, Case No. 18-CR-4574-AJB.
According
to his plea agreement, on or about April 30, 2018, Mr. Turley began
communicating with an adult female victim whom he met on the website
sugardaddymeet.com. Mr. Turley and the victim discussed entering into a
“mutually beneficial relationship,” meaning that Mr. Turley would provide the
victim with financial support and the victim would provide companionship for
and engage in sexual acts with Mr. Turley.
On
or about May 3, 2018, Mr. Turley persuaded, induced, and enticed the victim to
take a flight from a city in California to Las Vegas, Nevada to meet with him. Mr.
Turley paid for the victim’s flight and other travel expenses. At the time the
victim boarded the flight in California, she understood that she was traveling
to Las Vegas to engage in sexual acts with Mr. Turley in exchange for monetary
compensation. In Las Vegas, Mr. Turley provided the victim with between $1,500
and $1,800 in cash, and Mr. Turley and the victim engaged in sexual
intercourse.
The
plea agreement also states that on or about May 12, 2018, Mr. Turley began
communicating with the female victim via sugardaddymeet.com. In conversations
with the minor victim, they discussed that she was 18 years old. But he was
aware that she was a high school student, that she could not meet on weekends
because she was grounded, and that her parents had taken her cellphone away due
to poor performance in school.
On
or about May 15, 2018, the victim walked from her high school across the street
to a library where Mr. Turley was waiting. Mr. Turley took the minor victim to
a Boba tea shop nearby.
On
or about May 16, 2018, Mr. Turley met the victim at the library after school
and drove her to a store where Turley purchased the minor victim a cellphone. Mr.
Turley then drove the minor victim a short distance, parked the car, and
engaged in a sex act with the minor. The victim told Mr. Turley she wanted to
stop and needed to get home. Mr. Turley gave the minor victim $300.
Attorney Commentary: These
are serious cases. I suspect it got the attention of federal authorities when he had the female fly to Las Vegas to meet him. There are women who get lured to Las Vegas in human trafficking and never make it back home. This was not that type of case but there are young women especially those who are in the foster care system, are from disadvantaged homes or who have family disputes during the teen years who fall prey to someone willing to support them. When I say serious, look at the potential sentence. The maximum penalty in this case is twenty (20) years in
prison and a $250,000 fine.
One of the reasons Mr. Turley must have plead is
due to the plea agreement not alleging that she was a minor and to seek
benefits of cooperation and downward departures in sentencing. The San Diego
Human Trafficking Task Force investigated this case.
Presently, Mr. Turley is scheduled to be
sentenced before U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia on March 2, 2020 at 9
a.m. but this could be continued.
